


Here.

by FandomTales



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst, Fluff, George Weasley - Freeform, Harry Potter - Freeform, Minor Violence?, Post-Battle of Hogwarts, Post-War, Weasley twins, au- fred lives, fred weasley - Freeform, minor hurt/ comfort, weasley - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 13:45:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16996128
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FandomTales/pseuds/FandomTales
Summary: Fred and George, post battle, back in their apartment.





	Here.

After days and nights of fighting, of terror and torture, of death, decay, and birth, the battle ends. It doesn’t end the way it ended last time, nor does the new era begin the way it began.   
Last time he was destroyed, they celebrated. Every witch and wizard- dancing, partying, cracking open their oldest, finest firewhiskey. They whispered to each other, and when whispers were not enough, they yelled. They told friends and family and coworkers. When the urge to yell grew, they even told the muggles. They were imprudent, but who could blame them? The worst was gone.  
The worst returned without noise, with only the warnings of a lightning shot sky and the sense that something was not quite right. The worst came back with another level of depraved. It was more swift, more cunning, more evil. His second coming instilled in them the terror that came with falling asleep the night after a nightmare. The terror of knowing the nightmare will repeat. The terror that came with knowing how the nightmare ends.  
But this time, the worst did not win.   
This time, the worst was called Voldemort, and it was looked straight in the face and cursed at.   
And so the battle ended. There was no firewhiskey or dancing. There was mourning, crying, burying the dead. But in the morning, there was a smile on every witch and wizard’s face. If there were sobs shrouding the happy faces, no one said a word.

Fred and George stumble into their apartment the morning after the battle, arms slung around each other’s shoulders, tired grins on their faces. Fred closes the door behind them, locking their locks and casting a quiet protection spell. George starts heating a kettle. They reconvene in their living room, collapsing onto the couch. They look at each other for a moment and grin again. The grinning turns to laughing and soon they’re doubling over themselves with tears in their eyes. The laughing subsides, but the tears remain.  
“How you feeling, George?” Fred asks, swallowing hard.  
George looks up, as though searching for an answer to grab out of thin air. “I’m tired, Fred. Happy, too,” George tries for a smile, tears still rimming his eyes. “Though you were gone for a second back there.”  
And Fred was almost gone. He had narrowly missed an Expulso curse, but was quickly hit with a Petrificus Totalus and an unknown spell that felt like being torn apart. It was an agonizing few minutes before anyone realized where he was and went to save him. In the end it was George who found him, George who reversed the spell. It was George who wept over his body, believing him to be dead. But it was Fred who cracked an eye open and laughed, patting George’s back.   
“I’m here,” Fred had said then, over and over again until George and him were ready to rejoin the battle. Now he’s saying it, sitting on their couch in their small apartment. “I’m here George.”  
“I know,” George says, his voice a whisper.   
“You’re here too,” Fred whispers back.   
Both boys close their eyes now. They curl into each other, the way they did as kids, seeking solace in the nearness. Tentatively, they fall asleep, peace washing over them.  
That is, until the kettle George put on earlier starts to screech. Fred grumbles.  
“I’m not getting that”.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoyed. If you did, leave a kudos or a comment. if you didn't, let me know what I could do better. Thanks :)


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